Cinnamon Cauliflower Coffee Cake & Caramel Sauce

Since we got back from our adventure I have been on a much needed clean-eating kick. If you were following along at any point you know we were quite literally consuming everything in our path as we made our way around The America’s for almost three months – and it wrapped-up for me with a gluttonous weekend at EDB2012.

Back in my own kitchen I gravitated immediately to the quinoa, brown rice, kale and eggs. It’s how I prefer to eat, honestly, and a bit of ingenuity makes for some pretty tasty dishes.

My usual breakfast is oat porridge with some natural yoghurt, but I’ve had no desire for oats or dairy recently. And pretty much anything with gluten, even homemade bread, didn’t hold any allure.

Rather than fight it I embraced it, and working from home these past few weeks allowed me to cook whatever I wanted without working around a dirty office kitchen microwave. It is still odd to be home, but good food and exercise make it easier to settle in.

Of course, as it does, the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop rolled around and as hostess I needed to find something good to create. I’ve been baking with both carrots and pumpkin these past few weeks but wanted something new. Something a bit… really? you did what?

Cauliflower was the first thing that came to mind. So I went searching on the Google-machine and would you know it but I couldn’t find a single sweet cake made with cauliflower. True, I may not have looked particularly hard, but the absence of immediate recipes solidified my thinking to use the cruciferous platinum veggie for my Sweet Adventures Blog Hop ‘Cake & three Veg’ creation.

I ended up with the perfect substitute for dairy without involving nuts or soy. My mind is spinning with ideas, there is no doubt cauliflower will show up again in a dessert somewhere… But lets focus for a moment on this recipe because we have cake to eat.

All the details on how to link up are below the recipe, I can’t wait to see what everyone has come up with!

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Cinnamon Cauliflower Coffee Cake

Yes, I made cake with cauliflower, are you really surprised? Didn’t think so. Cauliflower puree is combined with lemon juice to make a perfect dairy-free substitute for the traditional sour cream or buttermilk usually seen in coffee cakes. Whole spelt flour and absence of refined sugar makes this a perfect breakfast or morning tea treat for everyone. In other news, I cannot believe how good this cake is, seriously.

Steam cauliflower florets 10-15 minutes until very soft and allow to cool. Puree steamed cauliflower well and measure out 1 slightly heaped cup. Set any remaining puree aside or eat it immediately, whatever.

Blend the 1 cup of puree with half the coconut oil and all the lemon juice, until very smooth and velvety like sour cream.

Add remaining oil, syrup, honey and eggs to the cauliflower mixture and whisk or blend briefly until well mixed. Fold wet ingredients into dry, stirring only until just combined.

Spoon just under half the batter into your prepared pan and smooth with the back of a spoon, being very careful not to hit the side and scrape off your flour. Sprinkle 1/2 a cup of the filling evenly around the centre of the batter*. The leftover filling will be used for your Caramel Sauce.

Top filling layer with remaining batter, making sure to scrape as much as possible out of the bowl. Smooth gently with the back of a spoon. Drizzle over 1 Tbsp of the reserved sultana soaking liquid – do not stir.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust with a bit of icing sugar if desired – it covers a multitude of sins and looks posh. Serve with Coffee Cake Caramel Sauce – see recipe below.

Makes 1 cake. Serves 8-12 people.

*NOTES:

If you can get your hands on Vietnamese Cinnamon use it here. The scent and flavour is intoxicating.

I layered the filling twice, first spooning in 1/3 of the batter topped by a handful of filling and repeating the layers, ending with the final 1/3 of the batter. However I felt that there was not quite enough batter to cover the filling well, so the above recipe simply puts it all in the middle of the cake.

Rum or burboun can be replaced with apple juice but it’s not nearly as fun.

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Coffee Cake Caramel Sauce

Use this sweet sauce to drizzle over your Cauliflower Coffee Cake for an extra special treat. You won’t need much!

INGREDIENTS:

leftover sultana and walnut filling from Coffee Cake

1 Tbsp rice syrup

1 Tbsp honey

1/4 c water

2 tsp dark rum or bourbon

METHOD:

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Simmer for 8 minutes until it just starts to become syrupy, sauce will thicken further as it cools.

Serve over Cauliflower Coffee Cake, ice cream, yoghourt, porridge… well you get the point.

Sweet Adventures Blog Hop – Link-up Instructions

This hop is open from 9am 19 November 2012 – 11:59pm 26 November 2012 [Sydney time]. Please only link-up new posts published on or after this link went live.

IMPORTANT - The instructions below explain how to link up and how to get the hop to appear on your post. If you aren’t sure of something leave a comment or send me an email and I will help where I can.

Add a link to THIS POST from your post.
* You can create a text link or link the hop badge in your post. Save badge by right clicking on the image to ‘save as’.
* Providing a link to this post means others can view the instructions and join in!

Click here for the Thumbnail List code– Copy the code and add it to the bottom of your post, you will need to do this in HTML view.
* Adding the code will create the thumbnail link list on your post so people can hop from one entry to the next!
* REMEMBER – if you are on wordpress.com [not self hosted] the list will not show on your blog. The link back you created in Step 1 to this post means others can hop through the entries!

Click here to Enter the Hop – This is the really important bit! The badge and thumbnail list are on your post, make sure to enter the hop so you appear in the list too.
* On the entry screen, please add the link to your SABH post [NOT your homepage].
* Your entry will be submitted when you click ‘crop’ on your photo.

PLEASE NOTE – your linked post WILL NOT appear straight away in the blog hop thumbnail list. To combat spam this is a moderated hop. Your post will be visible in the list after approved. Entries are approved in the order they are submitted during waking hours in Sydney. A girl needs to get her beauty sleep. If you aren’t sure of something leave a comment or send me an email and I will help where I can.

If you are on Twitter use the #SABH to tell the world about your Festive Faves post and follow us @SweetAdvBlogHop for new hop announcements and general deliciousness. Thanks for joining!

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We’ve just linked up, with our slightly more mainstream fudgy beetroot chocolate cupcakes, but just wanted to let you know, we are wordpress.com so not self-hosted. We’ve linked back on the SABH image and a few links within the post too

Cinnamon Cauliflower Coffee Cake, I like this served on my breakfast table! And my favorite Paradiso Pizza for lunch. I guess I just discovered a new target for recipe-to-learn on my list. Thanks for the recipe..